In St. Paul, MnDOT and Ramsey County still divided over I-35E crossing

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners last week agreed to pay for part of the road shoulder, sidewalk, traffic signals and left-turn lane along the state's future Larpenteur Avenue bridge over Interstate 35E, on one condition: The state improve pedestrian and trail access across the interstate.

That's no small request, and it's one of the boldest moves to date in an impasse between Ramsey County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation over the Gateway State Trail and the massive Cayuga/I-35E project.

St. Paul, the county and MnDOT officials remain divided over how best to get pedestrians across the interstate, and the clock is ticking.

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Details on Minnesota Department of Transportation's Cayuga Project can be found here.

The state has already hired most of the general contractors to complete the various stages of the $229 million project to improve I-35E north of downtown, and bids for MnPASS carpool lanes along the interstate came in Wednesday.

In particular, county officials and neighborhood activists are rallying against MnDOT's plans to replace a pedestrian tunnel beneath Interstate 35E near Case Avenue with a bicycle crossing at Maryland Avenue.

The Payne-Phalen District 5 Planning Council has organized a community meeting on MnDOT's plans at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Arlington Hills Lutheran Church on Greenbrier Street. City, county and state officials are expected to attend.

"I think this meeting on Wednesday is about listening to the community," said city council member Amy Brendmoen. "Maryland Avenue, which has space for bikes to cross, isn't necessarily safe for bikes to cross."

Members of the Payne-Phalen Planning Council say residents living immediately east of I-35E are among the poorest in the state. Many of them don't have cars, so the pedestrian tunnel under the highway near Case Avenue was the only connection for friends and family living on either side of the interstate. They're looking for a safe, equivalent link across the highway that is not at a busy at-grade intersection.

"Connect the East Side. Complete the plan. Make it fair; make it safe; make it work for everyone," said Leslie McMurray, director of the Payne-Phalen Planning Council, reading from the council's written statement to MnDOT. "We've received only piecemeal or partial solutions."

The approach to pedestrian access has divided some on the Ramsey County board from city officials, who say that marked bike lanes along Westminster Street, parallel to the interstate, could provide better access for bikers.

MnDOT manager Wayne Norris pointed to the recently completed Maryland Avenue Bridge as an example of an improved pedestrian crossing, with more to come.

"The city staff is proposing a design at the Westminster-Maryland intersection to allow for safe crossing of pedestrians and bikes," Norris said. "The east-west crossings of 35E will be substantially improved for pedestrians. There's huge improvements."

Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman, however, has said MnDOT's plans will leave a hole in the regional Gateway State Trail system more than a mile long between Cayuga Street and Arlington Avenue, further isolating residents who depend on it. The state trail runs from St. Paul to Pine Point Regional Park, north of Stillwater.

Rettman has advocated for a trail on the east side of I-35E between Arlington and Maryland avenues connecting to the Vento Trail and Trout Brook Trail systems.

Brendmoen, the St. Paul council member who represents the area, sees that path as an insufficient response to losing the pedestrian tunnel recently closed at Case Avenue. "We're talking about a loss of an east-west connection across I-35E, and the solution that's being presented is a north-south trail," Brendmoen said.

Payne-Phalen Planning Council member Greg Copeland said bicycle links were raised as a concern with MnDOT years ago, yet remain a late entry with state planners. "Connections for the East Side pedestrians and bikers have been an after-thought at MnDOT, at best," Copeland said. "This has got to be the only community where there is a $200 million MnDOT project where the people living next to the road will get less transportation and less-safe transportation upon completion."

Norris said the Cayuga and MnPASS projects officially started before MnDOT adopted a new noise policy to reach out to residents, as opposed to just property owners.

Eager to see bike lanes installed along Westminster Street, parallel to the interstate, city officials met with the Payne-Phalen Planning Council in May. McMurray said the Westminster Street bike lanes might be a worthy secondary project, but "it doesn't appear to address the concerns the community had."